Price for buffet lunch is $15 (includes complimentary parking in the hotel garage).

If you plan to eat, please RSVP This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Friday, December 5 at noon.

 If you choose not to eat, a charge of $7 will cover parking and event arrangements.

The formal meeting begins at 11:55 a.m.

Dr. Hardin will start with a general overview of Wacker. The heart of his presentation/discussion will focus on the hyperpure polysilicon production process. He will share basic insights into the downstream aspects of how Wacker’s material is used to make wafers for the solar and semiconductor world.

He hopes his presentation will be as interactive as possible. No death by PowerPoint!

He enjoys a back and forth when giving presentations.

He will bring items and examples to be seen in real life.

Wacker Chemie AG — a German multinational corporation founded in 1914 — has 28 production facilities and 21 Technical Competence Centers on 5 continents.

The Wacker Polysilicon North America, LLC plant in Charleston, Tennessee was the company’s largest single investment of some $2.5 billion. It became fully operational in 2016. It also was the largest-ever single private investment in the state of Tennessee. It still is the largest one that actually has been completed.

The site has even been expanded to produce HDK^® brand pyrogenic silica since 2019. And, in 2022 Wacker announced plans to invest more than $200 million to add production plants for high-consistency silicone rubber and silicone sealants.

Robert Hardin earned MS and PhD degrees in plasma physics from West Virginia University. He has extensive work experience in experimental nuclear physics. He developed a real time analog feedback/damper system for mitigation of proton beam instabilities in the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) accumulator ring and led many accelerator experiments at ORNL and other labs in the U.S. and Europe.

Last April, he was appointed President of the Board of Directors at the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council (TAEBC), which was among the organizations instrumental in attracting Wacker and many other global companies to the Volunteer State. TABEC promotes the growth of an advanced energy economy to strengthen Tennessee’s reputation as a leader in innovative technologies.

“I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy.
What a source of power!
I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”
— Thomas Edison, 1931

Distillation columns for the production of trichlorosilane at Charleston, TN. Wacker has been producing high-purity polysilicon there since 2015, and HDK® brand pyrogenic silica since 2019.

For more information on TSK and its meetings, please email TSK secretary, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call him at 865-679-9854.